Google looks to be staffing up US call center for Nexus devices

Do you "REALLY LOVE" Android and live in the Mountain View, CA area?

A report at Geek.com surfaced this morning featuring a leaked e-mail from Randstand Staffing, looking for folks who "REALLY LOVE" Android products to come work at a new Mountain View-area call center. The e-mail states that the job is for a "confidential client" looking to provide support for a newly released Android tablet ("I think we all know who that is!" gushes the note).

Geek.com also notes that recruiters have been scouring college campuses in the Bay Area for Android lovers. The implication is that Google—the only company which really fits e-mail's description—is hiring staff to support Nexus devices, including the recently released Nexus 7 tablet. Google has been criticized for how it has handled support of its Nexus devices in the past, with chronically short-staffed support centers and a disappointingly small window of time during which it will even talk to customers before support reverts to the device manufacturer.

The e-mail lists a typical range of requirements for a front-line level one support person: people who are friendly, communicative, and who are willing to be "Google disciples/ambassadors" (so much for the "confidential client" bit). The $19/hour they're offering works out to about $39,500 a year at 40 hours a week—not terrible money, though hardly a livable wage in Mountain View.

Still, taking advantage of a passionate and willing college student employee base is a positive move for Google, one that signals Google's willingness to prioritize a good customer service experience over low cost. It would be ridiculously easy for a company of Google's size to contract with an offshore vendor and provide garbage service like many other companies are doing, but they have instead opted to pull in cost-effective—and hopelessly enthusiastic—Android aficionados to man their phone lines. This is smart thinking: more than just helping out customers, this strengthens Google's brand image. And hiring locally and distributing some cash among the college student population instead of throwing it offshore is a great way to not "be evil."

Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Lee_Ars

31 Reader Comments

What they need to be willing to do is also do the forwarding of the hardware onto Asus/Samsung/whomever as well. Because as of right now, if you buy from Google, they make you call up Samsung to get hardware technical support. And Samsung's hardware technical support for phones is stock full of scripts and that's their solution to everything. And they keep asking who is your carrier. Like hell does my carrier even matter when I bought the phone outright direct from Google?

Hot damn, $19/hour is good money in a lot of places. What's minimum wage now, $7?

Probably good for the economy to get more people paid a living wage, too. Now they can go and buy stuff to support more companies that will pay more people a living wage so those people can go and buy more stuff, etc virtuous cycle etc.

Hot damn, $19/hour is good money in a lot of places. What's minimum wage now, $7?

Probably good for the economy to get more people paid a living wage, too. Now they can go and buy stuff to support more companies that will pay more people a living wage so those people can go and buy more stuff, etc virtuous cycle etc.

$19 / hr sounds really great until you look at the cost of living in the Mountain View area. That's basically McDonald's wages. I understand Google wants employees near the home base but for that same cash (and a lot less money in taxes and rent) they could get some superbly-trained people being paid exceptionally well if they were to move almost anywhere in the States. Set up shop in a college town even. Sure, you might have a lot of turnover (won't you always in this sort of job?) but you'll have a ready pool of talent.

Hot damn, $19/hour is good money in a lot of places. What's minimum wage now, $7?

Probably good for the economy to get more people paid a living wage, too. Now they can go and buy stuff to support more companies that will pay more people a living wage so those people can go and buy more stuff, etc virtuous cycle etc.

$19 / hr sounds really great until you look at the cost of living in the Mountain View area. That's basically McDonald's wages. I understand Google wants employees near the home base but for that same cash (and a lot less money in taxes and rent) they could get some superbly-trained people being paid exceptionally well if they were to move almost anywhere in the States. Set up shop in a college town even. Sure, you might have a lot of turnover (won't you always in this sort of job?) but you'll have a ready pool of talent.

I agree that they could set up this call center in better places.

But perhaps Google wants to use this call center as a farm team. What better way to find talented young future employees who are already well versed in the Google way?

If I were a CS major in the area with Android chops and could deal with the relatively low pay, I would apply.

What they need to be willing to do is also do the forwarding of the hardware onto Asus/Samsung/whomever as well. Because as of right now, if you buy from Google, they make you call up Samsung to get hardware technical support. And Samsung's hardware technical support for phones is stock full of scripts and that's their solution to everything. And they keep asking who is your carrier. Like hell does my carrier even matter when I bought the phone outright direct from Google?

Well, my firsthand experience with Samsung's phone warranty support has been fine.

It really depends on expectations, I'd say.

In my case I had a galaxy S phone which had usb function issues (would charge, but wouldn't interface properly with my PC through the USB port) and I called Samsung's phone support.

I was connected with a fellow from the Philippines, whose voice was actually quite intelligible (much better than you'd expect from an offshore call center) and the troubleshooting he had my do was very short and within about ten minutes of my first placing the call I had an RMA # and they'd emailed me a label for shipping.

Google needs to do much more than a call center. Start with in-depth "How-To" materials easily and prominently displayed or located on every Nexus device; make Nexus UI's that come pre-loaded and prearranged to display the full range of Google products and abilities (not just a folder filled with some of Google's apps); how about Nexus stores within stores where customers can touch Nexus and Chrome OS devices and have in depth questions answered (basically expand the Chrome OS kiosks to include Nexus and staff them with people who actually know the products and services really well); how about making a wide range of high quality accessories available for devices on +Google Play and third party stores; how about using Google Local to organize weekly or monthly Nexus meets were members can get to test new devices, OS features, have questions answered and exchange information/apps/tips in person; and lastly, they need to do a FAR better job advertising - putting little adds in websites is not good enough, they need to advertise Nexus as a major brand and blanket the airwaves with the message of the Nexus brand, the high quality of products, the inter-connectivity of Google and chrome services, the price advantage and the beauty and advantages of stock Android.﻿

Hot damn, $19/hour is good money in a lot of places. What's minimum wage now, $7?

Probably good for the economy to get more people paid a living wage, too. Now they can go and buy stuff to support more companies that will pay more people a living wage so those people can go and buy more stuff, etc virtuous cycle etc.

$19 / hr sounds really great until you look at the cost of living in the Mountain View area. That's basically McDonald's wages. I understand Google wants employees near the home base but for that same cash (and a lot less money in taxes and rent) they could get some superbly-trained people being paid exceptionally well if they were to move almost anywhere in the States. Set up shop in a college town even. Sure, you might have a lot of turnover (won't you always in this sort of job?) but you'll have a ready pool of talent.

I bet managers make $19/hr. And I assure you there are more McDonald's in California than there are In-N-Outs. Don't get me wrong, I do miss them (there aren't any east of ... Phoenix?). However, a quick check shows about 200 In-N-Outs in CA vs. ~450 McD's. My own personal experience in the Bay Area was I always had to drive past several McD's to get to an In-N-Out.

Hot damn, $19/hour is good money in a lot of places. What's minimum wage now, $7?

Probably good for the economy to get more people paid a living wage, too. Now they can go and buy stuff to support more companies that will pay more people a living wage so those people can go and buy more stuff, etc virtuous cycle etc.

$19 / hr sounds really great until you look at the cost of living in the Mountain View area. That's basically McDonald's wages. I understand Google wants employees near the home base but for that same cash (and a lot less money in taxes and rent) they could get some superbly-trained people being paid exceptionally well if they were to move almost anywhere in the States. Set up shop in a college town even. Sure, you might have a lot of turnover (won't you always in this sort of job?) but you'll have a ready pool of talent.

I agree that they could set up this call center in better places.

But perhaps Google wants to use this call center as a farm team. What better way to find talented young future employees who are already well versed in the Google way?

If I were a CS major in the area with Android chops and could deal with the relatively low pay, I would apply.

I don't think any full-time college students would be able to work 40 hours a week.

If I were a CS major in the area with Android chops and could deal with the relatively low pay, I would apply.

I help run a software company in Mountain View which regularly takes on college hires.

The pay mentioned here is about half the rate that a CS college grad would get if they have decent skill. I can only guess that this is not targeted at full-time, as no CS grad would jump at this opportunity.

As others have mentioned, $19/hr is not a livable wage in Silicon Valley.

Seriously Lee? No where in the job requirements does it mention that you have to live in Mountain View to work for Google.

What? It's right there on the second line of the posting.

WTF are you talking about. Are you unaware that a job located in Mountain View doesn't mean you have to actually LIVE in Mountain View. This is the fucking Bay Area. I don't understand why Lee is saying...

"Do you "REALLY LOVE" Android and live in the Mountain View, CA area?" & "The $19/hour they're offering works out to about $39,500 a year at 40 hours a week—not terrible money, though hardly a livable wage in Mountain View."

Why is he so keen on that you have to be living in Mt.View to work for Google. All I am saying instead of saying Mt. View, it should say Bay Area..."Do you "REALLY LOVE" Android and live in the Bay Area?" Sure still $19/hr is hardly a livable wage in the Bay Area, but you have to consider Google Benefits where things like food, transportation to and from work, some utilities expense is covered by Google.

Seriously Lee? No where in the job requirements does it mention that you have to live in Mountain View to work for Google.

What? It's right there on the second line of the posting.

WTF are you talking about. Are you unaware that a job located in Mountain View doesn't mean you have to actually LIVE in Mountain View. This is the fucking Bay Area. I don't understand why Lee is saying...

"Do you "REALLY LOVE" Android and live in the Mountain View, CA area?" & "The $19/hour they're offering works out to about $39,500 a year at 40 hours a week—not terrible money, though hardly a livable wage in Mountain View."

Why is he so keen on that you have to be living in Mt.View to work for Google. All I am saying instead of saying Mt. View, it should say Bay Area..."Do you "REALLY LOVE" Android and live in the Bay Area?" Sure still $19/hr is hardly a livable wage in the Bay Area, but you have to consider Google Benefits where things like food, transportation to and from work, some utilities expense is covered by Google.

Area is meaning AROUND WHERE THE JOB IS LOCATED. I don't see how hard that is to understand...

I was actually the lead on hand for the Google Nexus One support line. I handled almost all of the escalations and "dealt" with having T-Mobile own data issues (they often transferred us right back to our own callcenters).

Very difficult situations with very difficult solutions. Shaming a T-Mobile agent in front of a customer was at times necessary to resolving a simple billing or network reset (as resolution) issue without the customer getting transferred.

On top of that dealing with fedex, repair centers and DHL to get orders out correctly was a whole extra hassle that detracted from support.

I believe that the company that I worked for at the time did not take the opportunity to provide a new type of call center for Nexus support. I wrote a proposal for setting up each inbound caller with a direct representative or team of reps that would own their current and future issues. Competing with the retail presence that Apple has requires new thinking. Google appeared to want to try something new with their centers but our internal communications never made it up to them for the decisions to be made. I do blame my company and not Google for failure of the early Nexus One support. We were staffing about 80 people with calls coming in at a rate of about 2 a day per person. Google did care about support and was willing to pay for it then as well as now.

I do believe that the handling of Nexus devices has become a bit better in the recent years in terms of carrier support. This time may work out just fine.

Google needs to do much more than a call center. Start with in-depth "How-To" materials easily and prominently displayed or located on every Nexus device; make Nexus UI's that come pre-loaded and prearranged to display the full range of Google products and abilities (not just a folder filled with some of Google's apps); how about Nexus stores within stores where customers can touch Nexus and Chrome OS devices and have in depth questions answered (basically expand the Chrome OS kiosks to include Nexus and staff them with people who actually know the products and services really well); how about making a wide range of high quality accessories available for devices on +Google Play and third party stores; how about using Google Local to organize weekly or monthly Nexus meets were members can get to test new devices, OS features, have questions answered and exchange information/apps/tips in person; and lastly, they need to do a FAR better job advertising - putting little adds in websites is not good enough, they need to advertise Nexus as a major brand and blanket the airwaves with the message of the Nexus brand, the high quality of products, the inter-connectivity of Google and chrome services, the price advantage and the beauty and advantages of stock Android.﻿

I would love a Nexus store. I'd probably go in every day to fondle the new devices

Area is meaning AROUND WHERE THE JOB IS LOCATED. I don't see how hard that is to understand...

Woosh ...

Google subsidizes employees transportation costs and they also have "cafeterias" IIRC. I wouldn't mind the 1 hour travel for one-way if it's covered. Essentially with perks, bennies, etc., that salary is mighty tasty given the current economic conditions in this country. You have people trying to eek by on 20 hour work weeks at $6/hour in some states.

I bet managers make $19/hr. And I assure you there are more McDonald's in California than there are In-N-Outs. Don't get me wrong, I do miss them (there aren't any east of ... Phoenix?). However, a quick check shows about 200 In-N-Outs in CA vs. ~450 McD's. My own personal experience in the Bay Area was I always had to drive past several McD's to get to an In-N-Out.

This is the classic problem. multi-hardware vendors, an OS vendor and UI vendor and carrier. Each has its own idea of what spyware is ok, and which isn't. just getting them to agree is a problem. ATT claimed Apple unlocked phones, not ATT, well, that wasn't true. But truth has lost some value these days.

I don't plan to buy an open source handset with Google-nix OS (android?) because I don't like little android spyware. ya, I know its only 'helping' me, just like facebook 'helps me' find my friends by sucking-in my contacts? bull-crap.

So finding people who love google unix for handsets is a tough challenge. The tougher one is actually answering questions about google unix, att / verizon 'modem software' and other instrumentation built-in to the Samsun Galaxy III S. ice cream wedgie.

What they need to be willing to do is also do the forwarding of the hardware onto Asus/Samsung/whomever as well. Because as of right now, if you buy from Google, they make you call up Samsung to get hardware technical support. And Samsung's hardware technical support for phones is stock full of scripts and that's their solution to everything. And they keep asking who is your carrier. Like hell does my carrier even matter when I bought the phone outright direct from Google?

Well, my firsthand experience with Samsung's phone warranty support has been fine.

It really depends on expectations, I'd say.

In my case I had a galaxy S phone which had usb function issues (would charge, but wouldn't interface properly with my PC through the USB port) and I called Samsung's phone support.

I was connected with a fellow from the Philippines, whose voice was actually quite intelligible (much better than you'd expect from an offshore call center) and the troubleshooting he had my do was very short and within about ten minutes of my first placing the call I had an RMA # and they'd emailed me a label for shipping.

I had my phone back, fixed, within a little more than a week.

Mine was a simple problem with a Galaxy Nexus, it was the display just stopped working(it wasn't dropped, it wasn't cracked, the display just didn't turn on 95% of the time and I had barely had it for a month and a half at that point, when it did turn on it would generally just be garbled). I thought it was simple anyway.I assumed I had to go through Google for tech support, so after waiting 15 minutes on hold before talking to a Google rep, they had me try to get into the bootloader. Well, I still had a black screen. Battery pull, etc. Still black screen, the phone was booting as I could connect it to a PC and get copy stuff off of it. He was definitely an American, and it was good support, albeit they couldn't do RMAs.

So off to call Samsung, another hold time to get a rep, and he has me go through the same process, and continually asks me about who my carrier is, when I have an unlocked phone that has 0 support through my carrier, and only has support through them. The person kept telling me have I talked to my carrier, and it really did not make me happy having bought an unlocked phone directly from Google, which I had to tell him multiple times, but he kept insisting about my carrier. Other than the rep, the return was just fine and came back fairly fast(shipped out the 19th, returned on the 31st of July).